Reflection on the TPACK assignment Part 1

Reflection on the TPACK assignment:

1. Reflection on the assignment

What was the assignment?

To pass the course Pedagogies for Flexible Learning supported by Technology I had to deliver and present the final assignment. In this blog I will write my reflection about this assignment. I will focus myself on reflecting on the process and the product of this assignment. But first of all I will explain where this assignment is about.

For the final assignment we could chose between designing a TPACK based lesson or a TPACK based professional development plan. My group consisting out of: Linda, Mariette and Jeffrey chose for the second option. The reason for this was that Jeffrey, Linda and I, have experience in teaching en designing lessons.  Developing a professional development program was more challenging. 

So we needed to design a professional development program  for primary education teachers.

What was my opinion about the assignment?

Because of our flexible teacher there where almost none restrictions or limitations for this assignments. Normally a teacher provides a very clear assignment, including a description where you could earn some credits. I noticed that I felt a little confused in the beginning. What was this assignment about, what did the teacher expected from us?

After the lecture where international students presented some professional development programs it all became clear. We worked out our first idea and send it to our teacher for feedback. Because our teacher received a lot of question she made the assignment more clear. But still it was too vague for me. In our group we decide just to get started.

By working on the assignment everything became more clear. But I’m still wondering  if I fulfill the expectations of the teacher and pass my last assignment…………… Who knows? 

What did I learn from the assignment?

For me the learning process for this assignment consisted out of 3 different points:

- integrate my knowledge about TPACK into a professional development program

- the process designing a professional development program

- collaborate within a group (different learning styles) and huge logistic problems (distance and time)

I learned to transfer the information about TPACK from the lecture of Petra into practice by adapting a lesson plan form to a lesson plan in which TPACK is integrated. (one of the material assist for instruction of the professional development program). (link assignment TPACK)

Next to this I learned to design and develop a professional development program, by using the curriculum design model (Pieters, 2008). During my pre-master educational science and technology this model was presented. This is the first assignment where I actually could apply this knowledge.  You can read more about this in my second post: reflection on the process à developing a professional development program.

And third I learned to collaborate with a Mariette. I collaborate before with Jeffrey and Linda. I was used to their way of working a because of their teaching experience we had shared knowledge. Mariette has less experience in teaching that’s why we something went to fast. But by asking a lot of questions she kept up and caused a more transparent way of communication. We also found out that she is a creative talent! For me it was the first time to collaborate with a real visual-minded person. I found out that a picture explained more than a thousand words.